What if money was just called hours?
Difficult jobs are worth more hours than easy jobs and require more specialized skills. If the specific skill is not part of the repertoire then the job will be exceptionally difficult and/or impossible.
Anon makes games
Submitted 3 weeks ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to greentext@sh.itjust.works
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Comments
rafoix@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
There were some experiments where currency was actually denominated in hours, usually as part of a co-op system where you were literally trading for hours of labour.
I think the most famous one was in Ithaca, NY.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
But an hour waiting on an email shouldn’t be the same as an hour of heavy lifting
Hupf@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Odo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
In the not-too-distant future
You can’t start a sentence with that and not expect me to get distracted thinking of a certain theme song.
Bosht@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Honestly a face of mine. Acting is solid and storyline is like a dystopian Robin Hood almost.
ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
This is a good one to show people to get them thinking about class consciousness.
Mika@piefed.ca 2 weeks ago
Can't do that because hours are gods.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
I’m making a mars-themed luanti modpack (it’s FOSS and available here btw), and i intend to use water as the currency, if i ever get to trading.
Water is a scarce and useful resource on Mars. That’s all it takes to make a meaningful currency out of it.
EldenLord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Expect a mod to change it to piss lol
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
I’d be glad if anybody actually paid attention to my mod pack xD
so i’m fine with this :D
resting_parrot@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
The problem with using water as currency is that it is heavy. It is not reasonable to carry around large amounts. You’ll need some kind of representational currency.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
You’ll need some kind of representational currency
yep that’s exactly what i think would make sense in the real world. basically a paper currency backed by real water. one dollar represents 1 kg of water.
it’s like the gold standard, just not backed by gold but by water.
petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Caves of Qud uses water as currency. I think it explains this by making all of its characters weirdo radiation freakazoids that can teleport and fly around and stuff.
Valmond@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Just store it in the bank and use paper notes worth 1 water! (Some Swede a long time ago).
javiwhite@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Whilst an average film overall, the movie ‘In Time’ has an interesting concept for currency set in a near future sci fi dystopia.
Humanity has cured aging, and everyone stops aging at 25. Then their clock starts; indicated by a tattoo like digital clock on their forearm. Everything is paid for with time taken off their clock, once it reaches 0, they immediately die. Jobs pay employees a time salary etc, and the rich horde and manipulate the time markets to concentrate their wealth, and keep the poor from achieving the immortality they horde.
I enjoyed it, and I’m sure plenty others did, but there’s no denying that a rather large suspension of belief is required.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I think it’s a clever metaphor for the disparity in living standards and the real value of human life in a corrupt marketplace.
But the actual implementation of the story was a bit clumsy and heavy handed.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
I remember after I left the movie as a teenager with my parents two older dudes were bickering about whether poor people in our actual world are able to escape poverty or not if they work hard.
jnod4@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
We’re literally living that life and we’ve always lived it since the dawn of currency, fiat.
How long you’re going to survive after you reach zero wealth left to your own devices, homeless on the streets? Until the first rough winter?
Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Depends on how resourceful you are. You don’t automatically die once you run out of money. Also, no amount of money grants immortality.
x00z@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
In Time is definitely one of my favorite movies. It has some great world building around this concept.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Yeah it also has a rather large plot hole, right at the climax, and kind of terrible CGI, the car crash scene is hilariously bad. But yeah it’s quite a good film from a story point of view.
Valmond@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I read that comics (Mandrake) when I was a kid, like in the seventies. Alien came and stole for 40.000 years of gold. Recycle ftw eh.
javiwhite@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
Wouldn’t surprise me that it’s a rehashed comic book idea. It has all the markings of one. I found this which was apparently published in a playboy magazine of all places, not sure if it’s a retelling of the comic book or another rehash of the same idea, but it definitely seems like something that inspired the film.
Valmond@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
markovs_gun@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
This is one of those things where it’s basically impossible to make a game with more accurate economics that is actually fun. The fact of the matter is that medieval wealth inequality was just too big for most people to wrap their heads around and would make gameplay really weird. Adventurers would in fact need to be buying equipment with the equivalent value of gold coins, but such wealth would dwarf the costs of pretty much any “normal” stuff you could buy and would cause weird balance issue. For example, a pound of cheese in medieval England cost half a penny, but a good sword could cost 480 pennies. Think about how many swords you encounter in a video game. Even if you sold them for a 100th of the high end price, you could still buy 9 lbs of cheese for a single sword and if cheese is meant to be a healing item then it probably has to be total trash to balance how cheap it is compared to adventuring gear. Or you could say a low quality sword can be sold for 5 gold and a cheese is 1 gold and make it a normal healing item. It’s just hard to balance if the economy is realistic. As for credits, it’s just hard to imagine what the hell trade will look like in the future and everyone kind of understands credits as a concept.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Or just don’t give common items like cheese healing properties. Healing potions are perfectly normal features of fantasy games, and even in a more realistic setting you can use herbs, bandages and disinfectants to heal instead of standard food items.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Also, depending on where and when in the middle ages, currency would vary hugely and work with several dozens of different coins. Travel to another region would involve money changers, scales, entirely different systems of coinage with (by modern standards) absurd breakdowns of coins and wholly new names and words.
And having pure coins would be easy, so obviously you’d have fun stuff like “new dollars” being worth 7/16th of an “old dollar” because they have less silver in them.
pyre@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
that would be an interesting concept for a game with different regions. even if you limit it to two different currencies it could be interesting to see how it would affect gameplay.
markovs_gun@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Also consider that on top of money being different, most people weighed goods against the local currency because coins were the most standardized objects they had access to. So not only does the local currency change, but as a result, the system of weights and measures does too.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
As a gameplay abstraction, it’s fine IMO to make everyone accept silver coins. It’s not that far from reality, certainly closer than using gold as the base currency.
JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
I don’t see the problem with that balance. You shouldn’t be hoarding cheese as an adventurer for healing or for selling. Something like a potion should be used for healing and should be appropriately expensive.
That said, I agree gameplay is more important and economic simulation, I just don’t think the example was the best. It’s already off that in games like Skyrim we collect random trinkets until we can’t carry anything else and sell it all to any random shop keeper. It’s weird and, to be honest, not actually fun. (Mildly hot take.) Finding and selling things that are actually rare is fine. Like weapons, gems, etc.
Because as an adventurer you’re not a peasant. You’re an adventurer. It’s a high risk high reward profession that’s difficult to get into.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Be a medieval peasant.
Harvest comes in
Load 1,000 pounds of produce onto a mule
Mule dies
Throw mule and produce on shoulders
Walk to market
Set up stall
Sign: “Apples - 1 gold piece”
Sell a single apple
Am now the wealthiest man in town
Go across the street to buy a wool tunic
Attempt to make change
Merchant cannot make change for a single gold piece
So he kills me and becomes wealthiest man in town
Repeat this for every shop in town
Literally one guy left in village
Mongols show up
Take gold piece
Return to China
China countries to be the wealthiest country on Earth for another century
Bysmuth@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
the why did the wealthiest man in town give all his fortune for a single apple?
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
He was hungry
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
“My kingdom for a good snack!”
Valmond@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I read it was illegal for peasants to own gold or silver, maybe just in some place somewhere…
But yeah, gold is ridiculously expensive.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Even today, 1 oz of gold is worth 82 oz of silver!
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
If I made a sci-fi game I would just make the currency MWh. They handwave away so much science, why not have a watch sized device that can store insane amounts of power?
Which makes me wonder, is there a physics limit to the density of energy? There has to be, anyone know what it’s called?
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
is there a physics limit to the density of energy
the physics limit to the density of energy is literally a black hole. it compresses the maximum amount of mass (energy) into a space. but that’s technologically useless since you can’t extract the energy out of it on-demand.
The densest ways of storing energy that are technologically useful are:
- batteries (Na-Ion batteries: 0.2 kWh/kg)
- oil/carbon-based fuels (bread: 5 kWh/kg)
- uranium (pure uranium: 24 * 10^6 kWh/kg)
There’s also speculative technologies like antimatter (24 * 10^9 kWh/kg) which aren’t available today.
GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The beauty of using uranium as currency is that if anyone hoards too much of it, the problem takes care of itself.
brotundspiele@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
There actually is a method that could be used to extract energy out of a black hole. Probably not something you’d build in a watch-sized device though.
absentbird@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
So one gram of antimatter could power a modern city for like three months? That’s wild.
anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
[…] why not have a watch sized device that can store insane amounts of power?
Because Hiroshima was leveled by “only” 20 MWh (cost ranges from 120€ in northern Scandinavia to 1010€ in Greece) so having people carry energy wallets with enough to make more around day to day is like paying your groceries bill with C4 (which is perfectly save as long as there is no primary explosive).
Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yeah, but they will have a perfect safe containment device, and a way to transfer safely, just like they have FTL.
AEsheron@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Stellaris is a space 4x game that uses energy as a universal currency. The Endless Space games are also 4x games that use ancient nanomachines called Dust as currency.
tallricefarmer@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
We have technological limits to the storage efficiencies of different types of batteries. Batteries defined as something that can store useable energy. If we are talking just energy, matter stores lots of energy, and you can look at the famous Einstein equation to play with numbers. I do know we have something like a matter density limit in black holes.
MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Matter, expressed in mass, so kilograms or tons.
AllHailZorglub@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
You gained Brouzouf.
LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
But are your legs OK?
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
This is what I love about the Legend of Zelda games, it’s “rupee”, which comes from “ruby”:
Rupee is likely derived from or a corruption of ruby, a valuable gemstone. As a result, Rupees were frequently misnamed early in the series, such as the name “Rupy” in the original The Legend of Zelda. In the German versions of The Legend of Zelda games, a Rupee is called a Rubin, which is German for ruby. Ironically, Red Rupees resemble rubies.
They’re valuable gems of indeterminate size, not necessarily related to rubies or actual gems (could be glass or something), and have no direct comparison to any actual currency (unlike gold) but we can understand some amount of inherent value (better than credits). It’s unique to the game, and denominated as a single number.
Some other ideas for units:
- sovereigns - as long as the person in charge is a king
- in-game term related to the region (like Euro is to Europe)
- chips - could be metal, glass, gemstones, etc
Keep it vague so people don’t lose immersion by comparing to realm world units, or not have any inherent wealth. That said, “credits” is better than “gold,” just a bit cliché.
Wolfizen@pawb.social 2 weeks ago
Metro series games use bullets as a currency. Theyre small, not easily produceable in the setting, and have inherent value (you can shoot your money at enemies). Great design.
MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
Could swear I’ve seen a setting where the currency was sovereigns, but there was no king. Literally “cash is king”.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I guess you don’t need a king, since sovereign refers to the government, but when it comes to currency, I’d assume “sovereign” is referring to the picture of the ruler on the currency. I don’t know many who call their chief executive/head of state a “sovereign”, but most would use that to describe a monarch.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You can also get weird with it. Brandon Sanderson likes to tie money to a world’s magic system so in the world where people have metal based magic it’s coins called clips and boxings, but in the world where hurricanes make gemstones glow with magic it’s spheres of glass with gems called chips, marks, and broams
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yup, and that’s partly where my suggestion of “chips” came from. The money term isn’t a huge deal, but just changing the name to something relevant in world is cool.
Jankatarch@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
In reverend insanity the “money” was rocks that can be used as “mana potions.” Once someone becomes immortal they get infinite “mortal mana” tho so there is a seperate currency used by immortals.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Wait, they call it “rupee” but it somehow doesn’t relate to the currency of the most populous state in the world, whose currency is literally called “rupee”, which is etymologically related to silver, not ruby?
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
And it makes sense since Japanese doesn’t have a “B” sound and they look like gems, so ruby -> rupee makes a ton of sense.
flippinfreebird@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
No spacebucks?
aislopmukbang@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
[deleted]ddplf@szmer.info 3 weeks ago
stupid comment
Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
“tell me X without telling me X”
Insufferably obnoxious too
carrylex@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
GraniteM@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Down And Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow:
This future history book takes place in the 22nd century, mostly in Walt Disney World. Walt Disney World Disney World is run by rival adhocracies, each dedicated to providing the best experience to the park’s visitors and competing for the Whuffie the guests offer. In the post-scarcity world of the novel, Whuffie is a currency-like system that primarily measures the esteem of others, or in the case of extremely low Whuffie, their disdain.
alekwithak@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Game set in Pokemon. Currency is pokedollars.
rumschlumpel@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
One bread costs 5 whole gold coins. Because obviously.
fibojoly@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Well, it’s one bread Michael! How much could it cost? Ten gold coins?
Masamune@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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